‘Screen Fatigue’ leading to decrease sales of E-books

British sales of e-books are waning, trade figures revealed , suggesting readers were suffering from “screen fatigue“.Britain’s publishing industry had a record-breaking year in 2016, with sales of books and journals recording their fastest year on-year growth in a decade to reach £4.8 billion ($6.2 billion, 5.7 billion euros), their highest ever.

But e-book sales fell 3% to £538 million, continuing a trend seen in 2015. “People are now getting screen tiredness, or fatigue, from so many devices being used,“ Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of The Publishers Association, told the Guardian. Most impacted by the dip were consumer e-books, comprising fiction, non-fiction and kid’s titles, which dropped 17% year-on-year to £204 million.

However, digital sales still rose by 6% due to sales of audiobo oks (up 28%) and academicprofessional digital books (up 6%), making up 35% of total revenue.

Meanwhile, sales of physical books rose by 8% on the year to £3 billion, the highest since 2012. A statement from The Publishers Association said “striking front covers“ and “resurgence“ of bookshops led to the jump. In any case, it said, “a book is already the ultimate portable device“.

Source : AFP